2077: V really knows how awesome he is

V straightened his suit, stepped forward, and bowed, saying, "Ms. Michiko, hello..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Michiko Arakasaka slapped her across the face.

"V, I trusted you, but you lied to me!"

V neither confirmed nor denied it, but in all fairness, Michiko Arasaka certainly did not mistreat herself.

So she continued, "Ms. Michiko, hello..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Michiko Arakasaka slapped her again.

Snapped!

V grabbed Michiko's wrist and twisted it behind her back.

I gave you a slap to save face, and you're still getting worked up, huh?

Michiko Arasaka struggled desperately, kicking and shoving in V's arms: "Let me go, V, I order you to let me go!"

Do you still think you're Princess Arasaka?

V showed no respect to his former boss, immediately taking a pair of handcuffs from a security guard and snapping them onto Arasaka Michiko's hands.

"Take Miss Michiko back to her room."

V pushed the person away, and Sasha immediately stepped forward to catch her. The pink cat, while pulling Arasaka Michiko forward, whispered a threat: "How dare you slap V! I haven't slapped you yet! You're dead!"

Seeing Arasaka Michiko flinch, V wanted to tell Sasha not to do anything rash, but he swallowed his words. Well, it's good for Arasaka Michiko to suffer a little, so she won't cause him trouble all the time.

Under the protection of security personnel, Sasha left with Michiko Arasaka.

V walked towards Kangtao's security team.

"You've all come from afar and must be tired. Would you like to rest for the night or return immediately?"

The security team leader spoke up; her voice sounded like that of a young woman.

"You're V?" The other person looked you up and down. "You're all that famous, but you don't seem that impressive. You even got slapped by Michiko Arasaka. How pathetic!"

V frowned slightly: "It seems some people don't quite understand what politeness is. I think you should go back and learn it properly right away."

“No need. The old man told me to stay here and be your liaison with Kang Tao.” The other person took off his helmet, revealing a young face that could be described as childlike. His features were somewhat similar to Xu Zhong’s, and his short hair was somewhat similar to V’s.

"Let's get acquainted, my name is Xu Ling." The young girl extended her hand.

V shook hands with Xu Ling and couldn't help but ask, "How old are you this year?"

"17."

"Still a minor?"

"It's only a year short, no big deal. In some small Middle Eastern countries, I'd have had two or three kids by now."

V was a little speechless. How should I put it? Compared to Xu Zhong's politeness and humility, this Xu Ling seemed a bit... crude.

"You and Xu Zhong are..."

"He's my brother."

"Brother?"

“Cousin, he is my thirteenth uncle’s child.”

"Thirteen?! Does President Xu have many children?"

"It's not that many, only twenty-seven."

Twenty-seven?!

V was taken aback. In this era of severe low birth rate, she had actually given birth to twenty-seven children. No wonder it is a populous country.

"How many people are there in your generation and Xu Zhong's generation?"

"There are fifty-seven now, but Aunt Nineteen and Aunt Twenty-One are pregnant again, so there will definitely be more in a few months."

V, who had never intended to have children, was deeply shocked.

Out of curiosity, she wanted to ask more, but Xu Ling interrupted her.

"Sister V, are we just going to chat like this?"

"Then what do you mean?"

"Have a couple of bites!"

V couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, let's have a couple of bites, it's on me."

"You're on the right track! No wonder my brother raves about you." Xu Ling gave a thumbs up.

Mentioning Xu Zhong's name, V's expression darkened, and she stopped in her tracks, asking, "Why don't we go see your brother first?"

Xu Ling was completely confused: "My brother is frozen solid, why are you looking at him?"

"He is seriously injured. Didn't President Xu send you to check on his condition?"

"No, the old man has over fifty grandchildren. He doesn't care if one or two die. With my brother's incident, he can just go ahead and beat Arahaka up. He's probably secretly thrilled."

A pang of sadness flashed through V's mind: "And what about you? Don't you care about Xu Zhong?"

“We have endless homework every day, and all we do is eat and poop. We have no free time at all. We fall asleep the moment our heads hit the pillow at night. We haven’t even exchanged more than a few words. Do you think we can develop feelings for each other? I’m not my nineteenth cousin. That slut is a master of flirting and pretentiousness. I could never learn that skill.”

V confirmed that Xu Ling wasn't just rough, she was extremely rough, but strangely, she wasn't unpleasant to look at.

"Let's go, let's go for a drink."

"okay."

V first took Xu Ling to the Azure Building, but Xu Ling insisted that drinking vegetarian food was no fun. Helpless, V could only take Xu Ling to the Ritz instead. Xu Ling was quite excited at first, but she immediately became unhappy when she heard that she could only watch Mewtwo.

"Vegetarian dishes priced like meat are deceiving consumers!"

"Alright, you're lucky to have anything to watch. What kind of 'meat' are you, a minor, doing!"

V slapped Xu Ling on the head, which angered her so much that she insisted on challenging V to a duel, saying strange things like slapping someone's head would prevent them from growing taller.

In the end, V granted her request, and the two began to compete, but with alcohol.

The duel ended in V's victory.

V is the kind of person who drinks tequila like it's morning tea, so dealing with a little kid is a piece of cake for him.

After pulling Xu Ling out from under the table and having someone take her back to Kang Tao's apartment, V finally got rid of this little devil.

Back at his apartment, V found that Sasha hadn't returned yet. After asking around, he learned that she was still with Michiko Arasaka.

Fearing that Sasha might not be careful, V hurriedly rushed towards Michiko Arasaka.

When they arrived, they found Michiko Arasaka and Sasha sitting in a row playing games.

V: ...

"Let's go home." V pulled the pink kitten along.

The kitten complained as it said goodbye to Michiko Arasaka: "Michiko, don't play by yourself in secret, I'll come again tomorrow."

V: ...Damn, I bribed you with just a game. You clearly said you would avenge me.

Just as they reached the door, Michiko Arakasaka spoke.

"I will officially appoint you as CEO tomorrow. Get ready."

V stopped in his tracks: "What are your requirements?"

"Protect the City of Night."

"can."

Michiko Arasaka grew up in Night City, and she loved the city far more than she loved Arasaka.

The next day, V officially became the CEO of the Arasaka Yoru no Shiro branch. The title of "V Vice President" became history, and she should now be called "President V".

Major news channels reported the good news, and the people were overjoyed. They spontaneously organized various celebrations and commemorative activities. Shop owners put up electronic tags with super low discounts, restaurants and bars launched unlimited refills of drinks, and even the Genting Highlands resort launched a second half-price promotion.

At 19 p.m., V's inaugural address officially began in the memorial park in the company square.

The glass facades of small shops were adorned with Arasaka's logo, and all items on the holographic menus were marked with "60% OFF for celebration." The holographic advertising walls of the commercial building continuously displayed virtual fireworks, and virtual sales assistants dressed in cherry blossom kimonos smiled as they offered various "promotion celebration packages."

As a steady, powerful electronic horn sounded from the direction of the cross-sea bridge, a maglev float slowly pierced the night. A holographic projection on its top displayed V's youthful face; her silver-white smart suit shimmered with a nano-coating, and as she waved to both sides, a thunderous roar of cheers erupted.

On the ground, on the bridges, between buildings, and on the rooftops, people had been standing there for a long time. Their cheers even startled the flock of photon birds that were perched under the ecological holographic tree projection. Those birds, which were composed of energy fields, decomposed into thousands of light points in the air, eventually forming one smiling emoticon after another that bloomed in the air.

The inaugural address concluded successfully, and V returned to his busy daily work. With Michiko Arasaka's authorization, V gained legal recognition, and more employees from Arasaka's headquarters and branches went to Night City. The influx of talent brought with it a wealth of assets and technology, and more projects were launched and more construction projects broke ground. These projects and construction projects created even more jobs, and the entire Night City was full of vitality and prosperity.

V finished a busy day at work and went to sleep normally that night, but did not wake up the next day.

Sasha was terrified and immediately called Joanne Koch and Meredith Stock. Breaking Bad examined her and gave an unexpected answer.

"V is just too tired, she's fast asleep."

"Sleeping so soundly that you can't be woken up even if you slap someone hard?" Meredith Stock looked incredulous. "Why don't you check again?"

"Alright, I'll draw another tube of blood and bring it back to the lab. But I think it should be about right; based on the monitoring data, she should wake up on her own by tomorrow night at the latest."

Meredith Stock and Sasha went to deal with V's absence, while Joanne Koch returned to the lab, placed the blood sample under the electron microscope, and her expression turned serious.

"There are more nanobots in the blood, V, what exactly are you...?"

After a moment of silence, Joanne Koch suddenly stood up, threw all the blood samples into the high-temperature incinerator, and then commanded the laboratory AI in a trembling voice: "Immediately destroy all records codenamed V, both at the data level and the physical level, leave nothing behind!"

"Yes, the destruction has begun."

"I see, I see! It's because of this nervous system that it attacks the nanobots, I understand now, I understand everything!"

Joanne Koch tried to pick up the coffee cup, but her hands were shaking uncontrollably.

She knew it was out of fear, because an unprecedented presence had appeared before her. She didn't know if it was good or bad, she didn't even know if V knew it herself, she only knew that she had to keep this secret for V.

"Dong dong dong."

A knock on the door startled Joanne Koch. She turned around and saw Anders Herman.

"what's up?"

Anders Hermann answered excitedly:

"That person is awake!"

Chapter 44 Arakasaka Yorinobu's Attack

There is no space up, down, left, or right.

A V-shaped structure and a giant jellyfish float within it.

"We meet again." V looked around: "Where is this place?"

The giant jellyfish replied, "The New World."

V raised an eyebrow: "Then your world is a bit empty."

“This is not my world.”

"Whose is that?"

"yours."

"Hey." V ​​chuckled. "I've read a few old science fiction novels too. You mean this is my mental world?"

"No, this world exists because of you, but it belongs to us all."

"This is getting weirder and weirder." V frowned. "And who are you?"

"We are who we are, the aggregate of countless consciousnesses."

"Damn, how can someone else's consciousness communicate with me? I don't have the ability to communicate telepathically."

"Not the mind, but the data."

As the giant jellyfish finished speaking, symbols of 0 and 1 began to appear around her. They were overwhelming and vast, like a surging sea, yet they were incredibly obedient in front of V, happily gliding past her.

"This! This is cyberspace?" V exclaimed in surprise, but she quickly dismissed it: "No, I've been to cyberspace before. Although it's all made up of data, it's nowhere near as clear and intuitive as this."

"I told you, this is your world."

As if to prove its own words, the giant jellyfish extended a tentacle, and countless 0s and 1s converged to form a Delaman taxi riddled with bullet holes.